Tanzania: Dar es Salaam Gets U.S. $271 Million for Water

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — In a move to alleviate water scarcity in Dar es Salaam, the Indian government has given a $178m loan to Tanzania for the implementation of water projects.

The Dar es Salaam Water & Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) said it will use the money to end water shortage in the city, which is an intermittent problem to most of the residents of Dar es Salaam.

DAWASA is a Parastatal Organization whose operations are governed by the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority Act, 2001. DAWASA is licensed in accordance with the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority Act, 2001 to provide water and sewerage services in the DAWASA service area.

It provides water services in Dar es Salaam, Kibaha and Bagamoyo towns in Coast region. It is also an overseer of small towns in the Coast region, namely Mkuranga, Kisarawe, Kibiti, Ikwiriri, and Kilindoni (Mafia) in regard to the implementation of their water and sewerage infrastructural developments.

“We expect to end water scarcity by 2014. Once we start implementing the project, our program will go hand in hand with the installation of more efficient water pumps at both Upper and Lower Ruvu stations,” DAWASCO’s Acting Director of Technical Services, Mr. Romanus Mwang’ingo said.

Mwang’ingo said in order to cope with the growing demand, DAWASCO is expected to increase the production capacity of the Upper Ruvu plant to 196,000 cubic meters from the current 82,000 cubic meters a day.

He said the Upper Ruvu establishment was built in 1959 and was renovated in 1990 so as to increase its capacity but since then no other renovations have been done while the population it serves has tremendously increased.

“Due to the low capacity or our systems, there has been a huge scarcity of water supply to Dar es Salaam residents. Some get water twice a week while others do not get it at all,” Mwang’ingo said.

He stressed that the credit from the government of Indian will help DAWASA to increase the capacity of the Upper Ruvu station as well as to construct new pipelines which will have the capacity to carry new volumes since the station will have a new production capacity.

“If the financing is adequate, we also plan to build distribution networks to customers since many customers are not catered for,” he told East African Business Week at his office in Dar es Salaam last week.

According to him, other projects which are being implemented by DAWASCO, include the Lower Ruvu plant whose works are now at 60% of completion.

He said the project started in March last year and is expected to be completed in March 2013 where it will be able to supply 270,000 cubic meters of water a day from the current 180,000 cubic meters.

Millennium Challenge Corporation granted $38m to support the project.

Nevertheless, he revealed that DAWASA is at the last stages of getting an Engineer to drill 20 boreholes at Kimbiji (in Temeke Municipality) and Mpera (in Mkuranga, Coastal Region) which are expected to produce 260,000cubic metres per day.

The project has been funded by the World Bank through the water project program and is expected to cost $15m. Mwang’ingo has given a call to all Tanzanians to join the government efforts to improve water supply by taking care of the water supply infrastructure and be vigilant against vandalism.